"For me, as for millions of Indians, the journey to Sriperumbudur is always a pilgrimage. We come here to recall, to honour and to celebrate the memory of our beloved leader, a Great Son of Modern India, Shri Rajiv Gandhi. We come here to rededicate ourselves to the struggle for a just and equitable society and a world of peace, free from the threat of terrorism and war. Let us all once again pledge ourselves to work for the new world of Rajivji's dreams.

In so pledging, I take great pleasure in inaugurating this industrial park. This is the kind of place that Rajivji would have wanted us to build in his memory. An industrial park is a beehive of activity. A center of creativity and enterprise. A center of modern technology and science. In creating this industrial park here we truly honour the memory of Rajivji in the best way possible. I hope this park will make its mark in the world of enterprise, just as Rajivji made his mark as a youthful builder of a new India.

I feel particularly honoured that we have amidst us Smt. Sonia Gandhiji who works tirelessly to walk in his footsteps and guide us in our endeavours. I am sure each one of you will join me in assuring her that we will all work together to take forward Rajivji's unfinished task of building a modern, truly liberal and secular India.

I am happy to see that Sriperumbudur is emerging as the hardware capital of India with several world-class electronic hardware complexes being established by international firms such as Flextronics, Nokia, Motorola, DELL, etc. I commend Kalaignar Karunanidhi for his deep and abiding commitment to the development of Tamil Nadu. I congratulate my young colleague, Thiru Dayanidhi Maran for the energy and enthusiasm with which he is providing leadership in this field. I would also like to thank all my colleagues from Tamil Nadu, including Thiru Chidambaram, Thiru Baalu, Thiru Manishankar Aiyar, Thiru Vasan and others for the good work they are doing to take this state once again to the forefront of economic development in our country.

The telecom sector in our country is really booming. I am happy to learn that we will achieve the target of 500 million telephones, 40 million Internet users and 20 million broadband users by 2010. I am happy to learn that Nokia has already set up a Special Economic Zone here in Sriperumbudur, with an investment of about US $ 200 million. I am also told that Motorola-Foxconn is to invest another US $ 500 million here. I am confident that investment of this magnitude will create an industrial ecosystem conducive to accelerated growth in this area. With that growth will come employment and jobs.

I am told that a study commissioned by the Indian Semiconductor Association has indicated that Indian electronics/ IT market will grow from US $ 28 billion in 2005 to US $ 363 billion by 2015. A major part of this will be hardware including semiconductor chips. It is essential for us to develop semiconductor fabrication capabilities to support this sector's growth. We will be announcing a policy soon for the support of the semiconductor industry.

Electronics, IT and Telecommunication hardware manufacturing have a great potential in India. We have all seen impressive growth in the demand for mobile phones. Mobile phones today are not a luxury. They are a necessity, especially in rural areas. Mobile telephony has increased the incomes of farmers, petty traders, urban and rural service providers and have increased the productivity of white collar employees. As we improve mobile infrastructure in rural areas, we will see a greater penetration of mobile telecom services there.

The growth we have seen in mobile phones we now expect to see in other sectors such as personal computers, DTH television networks and so on. I assure you that our Government will follow a forward-looking policy regime that will continue to encourage this sector and promote new investment, create new employment and generate new business opportunities. We will reduce tariffs on 217 IT items to 0% as agreed at the WTO. This will promote greater competition which in turn will help the development of our own electronics industry. The SEZ policy is already quite favourable for electronics manufacturing firms. To make our Electronics and IT Hardware industry more competitive, our Government will soon come forward with an Electronics/IT Hardware Manufacturing Policy.

I am also aware that as the IT and electronics sectors grow rapidly, we are going to be faced with a shortage of employees with essential skills. The government is therefore committed to setting up a Mission on Vocational Education to improve the skill base of our people. Further, we will be expanding the higher education system to provide more and better quality technical graduates for industry.

I congratulate Flextronics for setting up this world-class facility in Sriperumbudur in a record time. I am quite confident that with this facility, Sriperumbudur is poised to emerge as a world-class manufacturing township for IT and Electronics. I also hope that with such initiatives, Tamil Nadu will once again regain its place as the industrial power house of India. I assure the people of Tamil Nadu the unstinted support of our Government in this enterprise."